LPL on a recruiting roll

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. expects continued success in recruiting large groups of brokers and financial advisers to its platform.

Since August, LPL Financial LLC, its broker-dealer subsidiary, has added five large groups of advisers with assets under management between $175 million and $2 billion. In total, those five adviser groups control almost $4.4 billion in client assets.

“PIPELINE STRONG’

“We do see the pipeline strong, and there are more large practices on the move,” said Dan Arnold, the company’s chief financial officer.

He made his comments last Wednesday while speaking about LPL Financial Holdings’ third-quarter results.

For the quarter, net revenue increased 2.8%, reaching $907.2 million. Net income for the quarter, however, slipped 5.8% to $34.3 million, or 31 cents a diluted share.

LPL advisers are busy fielding investors’ questions regarding political issues such as tomorrow’s election and the coming decisions over tax policy, Mr. Arnold said.

Resolving those questions will be beneficial to investors, he said.

And despite its success in recruiting advisers, LPL Financial’s head count decreased during the third quarter by 15. It stands at 13,170.

Mr. Arnold attributed that result to a bank’s decision to internalize its broker-dealer operations, shifting 181 representatives and advisers from LPL’s platform to its own.

He declined to name the bank but said that that information will be released soon.

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